Crouching Boy

1530-33
Marble, height 54 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The Crouching Boy was thought to be chiseled for the Medici Chapel in San Lorenzo, Florence. The memorial ensemble, conceived as an allegory of the inexorable march of time, was not completed in accordance with the original project. The statue of a boy may have been made for one of the niches in a tomb. The sculpture remains unfinished permitting an examination of Michelangelo's vigorous handling of marble.